Notice of Complete Application Public Meeting 716 Gordon Street

Student Residence Proposal Public Meeting July 11th

Saturday, July 8th, 2023 - 9:37 am
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The latest student residence proposal in Guelph is about to undergo public scrutiny—an upcoming opportunity for the community to provide their input. The proposal entails constructing a building of up to 11 storeys, accommodating 1,149 bedrooms, situated across the street from the University of Guelph.

A public meeting is scheduled for July 11, specifically dedicated to discussing the proposal for 716 Gordon St., the former location of the Royal Brock hotel, which was demolished in 2020. (Previously, it operated as a Best Western and a Ramada Inn.) This meeting will be an integral part of the city council’s monthly planning session, commencing at 5 p.m.

The proposal, presented by a numbered company, outlines plans for a six to 11-storey building connected to a three or four-storey podium, featuring a ground floor café.

If approved as is, the project would encompass 532 residential units with a total of 1,149 individual bedrooms. The proposed location is on the southeast corner of Stone Road East and Gordon Street.

To realize this project, a series of official plan and zoning bylaw amendments would be necessary, including increased density, reduced parking requirements, reduced setbacks, and decreased common amenity space.

Coinciding with the submission of the latest proposal to the city, the owner of 716 Gordon St. filed an appeal with the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). However, the appeal has since been withdrawn. Ira T. Kagan, the owner’s lawyer, explained that the appeal was initially filed because the city staff had deemed the application incomplete and had not presented it to the council for consideration. Subsequently, the application was deemed complete, leading to the scheduled council public meeting on July 11.

The deadline to register as a delegate or submit written feedback for the July 11 public meeting is July 7 at 10 a.m. Registration can be done by visiting guelph.ca/delegation, calling 519-837-5603, or emailing clerks@guelph.ca. Unregistered delegates will still have the opportunity to address the council.

The meeting will take place in the council chambers at city hall and will be livestreamed at guelph.ca/live.

A decision on the requested official plan and zoning bylaw amendments will be made by the council in a future meeting.

It’s worth noting that this is not the first development proposal for 716 Gordon St. Last September, an OLT hearing was scheduled but was canceled by the developer approximately a month before its planned date. The previous proposal involved constructing four interconnected towers, ranging from 11 storeys to four storeys in height.

Subject Lands:
716 Gordon Street
File No.: OZS23-003

Public Meeting: July 11, 2023, 5:00 p.m.
This is a hybrid City Council meeting that can be watched online at guelph.ca/live or in-person in Council Chambers, 1 Carden Street Guelph

Proposal:
To redevelop the site as a an 11-storey Post Secondary School Residence building. The applicant’s Concept Plan is included in Schedule 1.

Application Details:
A complete application has been submitted from GSP Group on behalf of 2319426 Ontario Inc. to amend the Official Plan and Zoning By-law for the lands municipally known as 716 Gordon Street. The applicant proposes to develop a 11-storey Post-Secondary School Residence building containing 532 residential units consisting of 1149 bedrooms and 90 square metres of commercial space on the ground floor as an accessory use.

The Official Plan Amendment application proposes to continue designating the site as High-Density Residential designation with site specific policies to permit a maximum net density of 676 bedrooms per hectare.

The Zoning By-law Amendment application proposes to amend the existing “Specialized High Density Residential” (R.4B-14) in By-law (1995)-14864 Zone and “Specialized High Density Residential with a Parking Adjustment Suffix” (RH.7-4(PA)) in the (2023)-20790 By-law. The application proposes to add specialized regulations to permit the increased maximum density, reduced parking requirements, added bicycle parking requirements, increased canopy encroachment into the front and exterior side yard setback, reduced front and rear yard setbacks and reduced common amenity space and an amendment to the Post-Secondary School Residence definition.

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